Combat vehicles such as the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) may be configured with a roof ring mount that allows various weapons systems to be mounted to the roof of the vehicle. Weapons systems including light and heavy machine guns, rockets, or missiles may be mounted to the top of a HMMWV. Additionally, such weapons systems may include or be surrounded by protective armor that shields a gunner or other personnel in the turret from hostile fire.
Many conventional turret armor systems are deficient because they are not configured, most importantly, to be rapidly assembled from a collapsed state and made ready for action, nor are they configured to quickly collapse and provide a reduced height for transportation. Such systems must be completely removed from a vehicle or have portions removed before transportation is possible.
However, some turret armor systems may provide for reduced height. For example, publication WO 2013/905732 (application PCT/US2012/056922 of BAE Systems) teaches an outward-folding gunner protection kit. Such a system is deficient because the outward folding armor panels may damage portions of a vehicle, may not be compatible with some vehicle configurations, and undesirably increase the width profile of a vehicle.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists for an inward-folding protective turret system for providing improved collapsibility in an effort to overcome the aforementioned obstacles and deficiencies of conventional protective turret systems.
It should be noted that the figures are not drawn to scale and that elements of similar structures or functions are generally represented by like reference numerals for illustrative purposes throughout the figures. It also should be noted that the figures are only intended to facilitate the description of the preferred embodiments. The figures do not illustrate every aspect of the described embodiments and do not limit the scope of the present disclosure.